"Heavy is the head who wears the crown…well crowns," Yo says as he points that invisible sword at Benimaru. "To carry all those lives and dreams on your shoulders is no small task. One that will place an immeasurable burden on you. Mind, body, and soul…You know this all too well, yet in your heart you persist again. Do you have what it takes to be king or will you be overcome twice?"
King? Overcome twice? Yo was surely referring to the sect's fall. Beni felt a twinge of shame. He never saw it coming. Even though he had only inherited the "crown" on his last day living, he could have prevented the attack if only he had been more vigilant. Benimaru shakes his head to clear his thoughts, he'd replace that shame with a newfound determination. Benimaru vowed in his heart to become a pillar of strength that would withstand any calamity.
More concerning than the immense pressure coming from that sword, was the shift in Yo's demeanor. He was still him but there was something else to it. He seemed more regal, more noble, and more intimidating as well. It's as if the sword itself was speaking through him, they were as one. Beni doesn't respond but draws several kunai, then he uses his flames to quickly purge and meld the blades into one weapon multiple times more powerful. He takes his stance and gets ready.
"Good, a king must never waver." Yo smirks at his brother, holding his sword upright with two hands in a sideways stance. "Now prepare yourself! Come at me with all that you have!" Yoriichi launches himself at Benimaru with a powerful horizontal swing. Flames explode from under Benimaru's feet as he bursts off to meet Yo. However instead of taking the first strike head on, he guided it away from himself with his new short sword.
"Oh perhaps I've shared too much," Yo says with an excited expression on his face. Benimaru uses improvised techniques similar to flowing water crushing rock to avoid receiving a critical blow, redirecting as many strikes as possible. Picking up the pace the two of them dance across the lake leaving sparks and shockwaves in the wake of their afterimages. The two of them meet in the middle of the lake with a powerful swing and FWOOSH!!! The sword coated in wind magic met one covered in concentrated flames, exploding into a giant spiraling pillar of fire. Even still their blades clash throughout the blazing tower. Clang! Swish! Shing!
"Don't disappoint me now Beni! Stand strong!" Yoriichi shouts with an increasingly sadistic smile, his heart racing and blood rushing. Yo truly feels alive in the moment. As he loses himself in the fight Benimaru is put on the defensive, trying to keep pace with this fierce swordsmanship that left little to no openings.
After a certain point Beni's weapon is broken after almost every other swing. Using the refiners fire Benimaru quickly reforges the broken metal into new blades in time for his next strike. It was all he could do to withstand the fierce attacks of Yoriichi and Artoria's swordplay. Even with the constant reforging that sword was just too powerful. Retreating several paces Benimaru weaves hand signs. "Fire sty-"
"Do you honestly think you have time for that!?" Yo says swinging down on Benimaru who narrowly dodges with an explosive step. The rumbling of thunder could be heard as Yo appears dashing alongside him with another swing. Beni jumps back dodging again, and leaps over another strike. "Got you!" Anticipating where Beni would land, Yo was readying his next attack when his little brother stopped falling. He was standing on the air! "Hold up, wait, time out!" Yo stops the fight, "you mean to tell me you can stand in the sky? Now THAT'S COOL!"
"WHOAAA!!!! You can stand on the air with chakra?" Sasuke who had just recently learned of standing on water was surprised to see this level of technique.
"What people can do that!?! Could you do that?!" Naruto asks turning to the veteran ninja sitting beside him.
"I can't say I've seen this before." Mikoto answers.
"I didn't know this was even possible…" Kushina says dumbfounded. Kids these days were something else.
"I had heard of ninja who could manipulate the elements to fly…but standing on air…" Fugaku answers he was astounded with what he was seeing. The boys held awe inspiring talent.
"The level of chakra control that must take…I'm not sure I could mimic that one just yet. You old schools really weren't factory model." Yoriichi says truly impressed. Benimaru couldn't even feel cool about it because of what came next. "But, sadly you're not the only one who can stand in the sky…" Using his spirit energy as a foothold Yoriichi casually steps up to Benimaru's level.
"Yo can do it too!?" Kushina exclaims.
"Yes but they're using two separate techniques to do it." Fugaku answers studying the energy concentrated in their feet with his sharingan.
"They truly are incredible." Mikoto marvels. What is it with this generation!?
"Of course you can do that…" Beni grumbles. He unfurls a scroll and taps the seal and giant shuriken appear spinning in the air all around him. Suddenly they all catch fire before dispersing to attack Yoriichi. Benimaru rushes behind them to seize the opening they create.
"Of course they catch on fire…" Yo sighs. He slashes clean through the first few, and defends against Beni with patient well timed strikes. It didn't take long for them to realize their numbers weren't dropping but they were being melded back together and coming back. "Bakudo no. 62 hyapporankan." All around his body blue-white rods of spirit energy appear pointing in all directions. With a single hand gesture they disperse, pericing through and pinning the shuriken down.
'He really is annoying to fight,' Benimaru thinks weaving past the rods before rushing in. He and Yo battle through the air at extreme speeds. Beni kicks off of Yoriichi flipping backwards, and leaps back into the fray with a burst of fire.
With a deep breath he flies straight at Benimaru, "Sun breathing x water style: Water lily thrust!" Pushing his sword straight forward, water swirls around the blade before it explodes into bright flames. Winning the clash Yo turns as Benimaru falters striking him straight down with the butt of his sword. "Hmm? No blood at all?" Yoriichi knew his sword connected with Benimaru and he had aimed to just graze him, so his sword shouldn't be clean… "Oh you sly brat! Armor?" He couldn't help but laugh, the boy was ready for anything…but still that armor was pretty tough. Did he refine it similarly to the blades, if so how many times has he done it?
"This isn't over Yo!" Benimaru shouts as he climbs onto the surface of the water.
Pointing his hand at Yoriichi, flames burn in his palm with steadily increasing temperature until it turns blue. "Prepare yourself! Fire style: Purgatory flame geyser!" The flames shoot out in a concentrated beam like a powerful laser.
Yo was a little surprised by Benimaru but excitement dominated his thoughts. Undeterred by the oncoming flames. He breaths in deep getting ready for his next move. Water vapor from the air and the lake water gather in his hand creating a ball of compressed water. "Water style x Water breathing: Deep sea bomb!" He throws the ball at Benimaru's attack and they explode into each other, somehow that small ball had enough water to stop the attack. The heavy impact was followed by another smokescreen of steam.
"I can barely tell what's going on Naruto yells in frustration. Not only were they fighting at extreme speeds, the steam and explosions kept obscuring their vision.
"Really! This is getting annoying! How am I supposed to learn if I can't see!?!" Sasuke pouts alongside Naruto.
Although the untrained eye could no longer keep up with their movements, the sharingan toting prodigies dance wildly in the mist. Refusing to be overwhelmed Benimaru continues increase his fire output to boost himself until his body steamed. However, no matter the attack that invisible sword continues to withstand Beni's onslaught. "What is that sword?" Beni mutters to himself irritated that he cannot get passed it.
"Hahaha! Let me show you!" Though rhetorical Yoriichi answers anyways. With a powerful step forward he readies his next attack. "Sun breathing x Yang release: sunlight slash." No one was ready for the speed of the attack that comes next, even with the sharingan Beni could still barely see it. With one swift downward swing, a line of white cleaved straight through all of Benimaru's defenses, he simply found himself with a gaping wound across his chest. He drops to his knees and falls face-first into the water as blood pools around him. "Oh shit! My bad Beni I got carried away!" He rushes over to check on his brother.
"Benimaru!!!" Mikoto yells.
"You've gone too far Yo," Kushina stands up about to rush the field.
"Wait," still enthralled in the fight Fugaku stops anyone from interfering.
"What do you mean, wait!" Kushina says flustered before Benimaru's back bursts open and countless strips of tape lined with seals shoot out and wrap Yo up. "Huh?" Benimaru's body breaks down and the real him is nowhere to be seen.
"Eh? What's this?" Yo looks as confused as Kushina, seeing that he is completely immobilized and Beni is gone. Despite his struggling the bindings readjust themselves to keep the insanely strong boy in place. Not only that he felt his chakra dampened as well.
"Ninja art: cursed silk trap." From beneath the surface of the water Benimaru emerges holding a hand sign. "Give up. Those bindings adjust to your strength, so breaking them is impossible."
"Beni? You avoided my attack? How?" Not even trying to resist the bindings anymore Yo just wants to know how Beni pulled one over on the sharingan.
"Honestly I didn't and can't. but you've shown your greatest flaw. You haven't had to put your life on the line very much because you are so powerful. Due to that your arrogance has made you sloppy brother." Benimaru lectures Yoriichi who treats the battle as a game.
He pulls out a small cloth doll with a kanji for 'fake' written where its face should be. "This is a body double doll, it transforms into and act as whoever puts their chakra into it for a short while. While clearly inferior to the original, it can make for a decent distraction…especially when your opponent looks down on you so much he doesn't bother to note the difference." It was clear that he was insulted by the look on his face.
Kushina facepalms seeing Yo caught in the trap. "I warned him about letting his ego get out of control in the battlefield…"
"Oooh that was pretty smart! I thought you slowed down because you hurt your ankle or something, good play. Hahahaha!" Having been effectively humbled Yo let out a hearty laugh.
"Do you yield?" Beni asks with a little more chakra the bindings tighten.
Yoriichi returns the offended glare, "you're kidding right?" On his whim Yo's sword came and cut the bindings, and he grabbed the handle as it flew by. "Good plan until you thought tape would stop me…tape? Really?"
'Freaking monster…' Benimaru thinks, becoming more and more aware of their gap in strength. Benimaru tries to think of another trap but it seems like he will break out of it, on top of that he can feel fatigue is setting in and the last of his metal tools have been melded into his dagger. Yoriichi on the other hand looks to have no sign of tiring, in fact he was showing no sign of slowing down. Benimaru wracks his brain for any chance of turning the battle into his favor.
'He's starting to panic…' Fugaku thinks. 'This will likely end soon.'
"Beni!" Yoriichi's shout snapped Benimaru out of his trance. "Stop worrying so much! You're an Uchiha! I know you can feel it, combat is in your blood. Cut loose and let yourself go wild!"
'Hahahaha spoken like a true Uchiha!' Fugaku thinks beaming with pride.
When Beni heard that it was like a sense of clarity came to him. Just fight. Hold nothing back. "Alright, I'll do just that." As Benimaru relaxes himself, the rose tattoo starts to glow bright red under his armor. Suddenly he releases a massive stockpile of chakra that had been stored and refined within the tattoo like a seal unleashed.
"This chakra, it feels so pure and powerful." Yo marvels at the technique as he is reminded of something akin to a small tailed beast... though he already fought the strongest. "This must be another of his hacks…"
The both of them wait a moment perfectly still, watching for the other to give an opening. As a single leaf falls onto the water's surface, they break the silence rushing straight at each other. Benimaru's abilities increase in every aspect and their fight seemed to be getting more even. In close quarters Benimaru exhales a giant fireball which Yoriichi cuts through, despite being pushed back several meters. Several more follow closely behind. Yo stomps the water as a giant pillar rises to block them. Through the steam he can see a faint red glow as Benimaru's next jutsu charges up. Holding his hands in front of him, spiraling chakra gathers in between them.
"Another big one huh?" Yoriichi says sensing the magnitude of the jutsu just from the pressure it gave off. "Let's see how it stacks up to this! Taiyogan!" In his open palm a radiant, scorching hot ball of golden light appears as he rushes towards his brother.
"Esoteric art: Grand destruction wheel." Pushing his hands out, Beni releases the gathered chakra as it rushes forward expanding in a wave of pure destruction in the shape of a rose. As their jutsu clash the air starts to tremble, and fluctuations in chakra and natural energy cause explosions all around them.
"Don't you think we've let them go on too long?" Mikoto says worried, they've stopped caring about their safety. Though impressive, she was becoming increasingly worried.
"No point in stepping in now, it's almost over…" Fugaku answers.
The ensuing clash results in a devastating explosion blowing them both across the lake. It even cleared out most of the lake water, that rained down to refill the empty crater.
"Woooow that was one hell of a jutsu!!!" Yoriichi looks at his bloody hand had 3 broken fingers. It was the first real injury he received today, from a direct hit. "Congrats Beni you've hurt me!" He laughs across the lake to his brother who seems to struggling to maintain his form, it looks like that impact hurt him a bit too. "I'll let this one heal naturally," yo smirks proudly. Through sheer willpower and muscle control he forces his bones back into place but does nothing to stop them from scaring and bleeding.
"What's say we bring this to a close?" He asks ascending into the sky. "Since you manage to match that, I'll show you something really special. An original shinjutsu that I've created." A golden light starts to shine in the sky above. "Now watch closely."
Benimaru looks confused. Shinjutsu? What is that? A quick glance at the adults shows they don't know what's going on either. Bracing himself for the worst. Benimaru amasses as much chakra as he can before his flame posture causes it to ignite into a blue inferno around him.
"Yes. Go all out, anything less would be suicide." Yo says extending his hand towards Bemimaru. "Sky sundering heavenly palm." From beyond the clouds the golden lights burst through in the form of an enormous golden hand that dwarfs the battlefield.
The overwhelming presence of the hand coming down made Beni stop for a moment. Whatever this shinjutsu that Yo used was beyond anything he'd ever actually seen, it was like an act of a god. Yoriichi was clearly cut from a different cloth. No, he couldn't loose heart now, Benimaru steeled his nerves for a final attack. "Esoteric art: flashfire blade!" Standing as if he was about to do a quickdraw Benimaru draws all of the flames around him into his hands. Then swinging his hand as if he held a sword, Benimaru releases of condensed heat in one devastating attack.
When the blade of heat hits the hand it explodes violently, but that was it. The golden hand continues without any hesitation. "It looks like I win," Yoriichi says with a smirk. The golden hand stops just short of Benimaru who was too tired to even try to dodge. He had passed out from fatigue before he was even touched. "Hahahaha you burned bright little brother, but your light still pales in comparison to the sun. Try again in a hundred years."
"Heh that was quite show you put on, but I bet could take you on." Someone laughs from behind the tree line. Everyone still awake turns to see someone coming.
"Kojiro!?" Yo says as he reveals himself. "Why are you here…with them?" His face turns sour seeing the third hokage and his advisors along with him.
"We're going to skip the giant hand from heaven," Kojiro starts.
"Wait you saw that?"
"Yes, you destroyed your barrier with that thing! The whole village saw it!" Danzo yells, angry that Yo thought that anyone would miss it. "What was that jutsu you used!?
"So what is so important you guys came all the way here for lil ole' me? If it's boring I won't go." Yoriichi says seriously .
"You have been asleep for too long as the foremost expert on hollows. The shinsengumi need the proper means to defend this infested world, since you slept hollows keep coming all over on their own. I met the one named Masamune and his brother suujin they have took refuge in the sound village as Senju they have gathered a mass following, finally I almost died to this thing called an arrancar, so does this interest yo!?. " Kojiro answers in all seriousness sword aura pressing every where.
"Yes this can make my heart dance. Let's go to the base, gather all members and summon them. it's time for the "zodiacs" to be set loose in the world. Let those stars purge away the darkness." Yoriichi says pretending to be profound only to get an eye roll from everyone except Kojiro who is smiling sadistically at the the thought of those 12 finally leaving secluded training